VIDEO: Danish MEPs on snap elections

Denmark faces its tightest parliamentary election race in decades Thursday. In what is traditionally a two-block party system where the left-wing ‘red block’ parties unite against the center-right ‘blue block’, opinion polls predict both will get around 50 percent of the vote.

Danish MEPs say that more than ever these elections are about personalities. “They have played a huge role,” says Morten Helveg Petersen, from the Danish Social Liberal Party.

Neither serving Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, from the Social Democrats, nor Lars Løkke Rasmussen, leader of Denmark’s Liberal Party, are very popular with voters. Thorning-Schmidt’s government has been weighed down by having to carry out tough economic reforms, while Rasmussen was embroiled in a scandal involving his use of party funds.

“Both sides have had their difficulties,” says Christel Schaldemose, a Social Democrat MEP.

The far-right Danish People’s Party — which made major gains in last year’s European Parliament elections, taking four of Denmark’s 13 seats — is expected to benefit from voter discontent. Opinion polls suggest they could become the second largest force within the blue bloc with around 17 percent of the vote, which would be up 5 percent on their 2011 general election result.

Campaigning for the vote, which was only announced three weeks ago, has been heavily dominated by issues such as migration policy, the economy and welfare state.

But Europe has also been on the agenda since opposition parties declared their support for British Prime Minister David Cameron’s plan for a referendum on EU membership. The center right is keen to renegotiate Denmark’s membership.

Schaldemose said it was likely that if the center-right parties got into power, they “will probably also ask for the same kind of referendum.”

The Danish are also to vote early next year on the so-called EU legal opt out in a referendum, which is likely to see Denmark leave the pan-EU policing organization, Europol.